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About SouthernGirl2

A Native Texan who adores baby kittens, loves horses, rodeos, pomegranates, & collect Eagles.
Enjoys politics, games shows, & dancing to all types of music. Loves discussing and learning about different cultures.
A Phi Theta Kappa lifetime member with a passion for Social & Civil Justice.

30 Responses to Thursday Open Thread | Christmas Jams

LOL…one can’t make this stuff up…it’s like we’re witnessing a kindergarteners in a school play…

“…Donald Trump is back to following 41 accounts on Twitter. On Tuesday, the president-elect curated a mere 40 accounts for his beloved social media feed. But the 41st follow, the account for actress and producer Roma Downey (“Touched By an Angel”), who is also married to “The Apprentice” producer Mark Burnett, he has followed and unfollowed at least three times prior.

Prior to Trump’s December 12 unfollow of Downey, between the dates of December 4 and 5, the president-elect had re-followed Downey approximately one week after the initial unfollow, which took place in late November. Death and Taxes initially pointed out how unusual it was for someone burdened with the task of a presidential transition to take the time to unfollow anyone — let alone an account belonging to the spouse of a man who threatened to sue anyone in his production company that would leak compromising B-roll footage of his “Apprentice” star. (Paging: Tom Arnold.)..”

“…“Trump is very unhappy,” the source told The Wrap. He’s reportedly brought in Mark Burnett, his old buddy and co-creator of “The Apprentice,” to take control of the sinking ship and hopefully salvage something from the wreckage. (Maybe that’s why Trump re-followed Burnett’s wife on Twitter the other day.) Burnett isn’t screwing around, either. He’s got big-time realty TV talent booker Suzanne Bender working night and day to scrape together some people the American public will hopefully vaguely recognize to perform at Trump’s party.

If you haven’t heard of Bender, her credits include “Larry the Cable Guy’s Hula-Palooza Christmas Luau,” “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” and “Oh Sit!” a “high-octane musical chairs competition,” according to Page Six.

“Bender has been tasked with salvaging this,” the source added. “It’s a Hail Mary [play] coming directly from the principal.”

Bender and Burnett have their work cut out for them. So far nobody wants to go to Trump’s inauguration. Elton John, Garth Brooks, and Celine Dion have all declined. Opera star Andrea Bocelli was originally booked but then apparently was like “Wait… Donald Trump?” and backed out.

“If anyone does do it, I hope that the check that they get is in the nine figures. Because it’s probably the last check they’re ever going to get,” Dixie Chicks manager Simon Renshaw said…”

When even freaking Anthony Bourdain is coming off sounding smarter, more principled, more insightful and having so much more sense than those usually held up in our politics and world as ‘leaders’ of worth and ‘integrity’…

When an online food mag is doing more relevant, honest and hard hitting news interviews than our ‘news’ and mainstream media..

“…Anthony Bourdain had just returned home for the holidays, stepping off a plane that had delivered him from the balmy heat of Muscat and walking directly into one of those wintry New York snaps where the frigid wind fires through Manhattan’s crosstown canyons like rubber bullets. I showed up at the restaurant looking like a walking duvet, scarved and hatted and gloved. Bourdain was in a bomber jacket, hunter green, ready for a mild autumn. He still had Oman on his mind. “It was pretty amazing,” he said. “The desert is a pretty once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

It was December 19, the day the electoral college voted to install Donald J. Trump as the 45th President of the United States. Bourdain and I had this dinner on the books for a month, ever since I reached out for a quote, a diligent food journalist asking one of our world’s biggest stars if he had any thoughts he wanted to share on the record about Trump’s victory. A month before the election, Bourdain and I had a long conversation on the Eater Upsell podcast. Then, among other things, he’d defended his show, Parts Unknown, from audience accusations that it had become too much about politics. “If the army controls the entire flour supply and the bakeries, that’s already a political thing,” he said. Food is politics, is the point. More to the point, media is politics, and that includes food media. “I’m not gonna tell you who to vote for, but I do notice things and I do have opinions,” he said on the Upsell. “And if the guy I ate with in Russia who says, ‘No, I’m not worried about Putin killing me’ is shot to death on the front lawn of the Kremlin a few months later, I might mention that.”

So, did you vote?

Yes. No fan of the Clintons am I, by a long shot. But I’m a New Yorker, Donald Trump is a New Yorker. And the New Yorkers I know, we’ve lived with this guy for 30 years. I’ve seen Donald Trump say things one day, and then I saw what he did the next. I’ve seen up close how he does business. Just like if you lived in a small town, you’d get to know the sheriff, the guy who runs the hardware store, the guy who runs the filling station — Trump comes from that era of guys you followed, guys you knew about every day: Trump, Giuliani, Al Sharpton, Curtis Sliwa. I’d see him at Studio 54, for fuck’s sake. I’m not saying I know the guy personally, not like I’d hug him, but I’m saying that as a New Yorker, we pretty much are neighbors. And my many years of living in his orbit have not left me with a favorable impression, let’s put it that way. There’s so many reasons to find the guy troubling. When Scott Baio’s the only guy you can find to show up at your convention, you’re in trouble.

Do you think he’s actually going to make moves toward deporting people?

I think it’s going to be hard times. Is he gonna do anything near what he promised? Of course not. But he will be forced to do something, by the people around him. He will have to do something, and it will be extraordinarily ugly.

So what will get us past this?

Changing demographics. Other than that, it’s Bond villain shit. I’m pessimistic to the extreme. I really think people have no idea how bad it already is, and how bad it’s going to get. I read a lot of history. We’ve heard all of this before. I think it’s that bad. It can easily go that way.

Already I’ve been accused, apparently indirectly, by the Erdogan government, who are saying chefs are actually working [as agents of foreign intelligence].

How does that make you feel?

I’m heartbroken. I enjoy visiting Turkey. It’s a place I have a lot of friends. Now I have to think about what happens to friends who I visit in Turkey, would that compromise their position? I wouldn’t go to Turkey if anyone I’d talk to would lose it or would be potentially under suspicion. They just purged tens of thousands of teachers and government employees on much less grounds. So, you know, that’s not helpful.

Russia clearly is going to be a problem for me. The last time I was there, they killed my lunch partner, you know? And I’m a little pissed about that. And I’ve expressed that publicly, which is increasingly not such a wise thing to do.

Political correctness was never law, it was just etiquette.

You know, it’s why they always kill the comedians and the poets first. People can’t stand ridicule. It clearly gets under Trump’s skin — he can’t bear it, it’s really a problem for him. So if you’re looking to do something, I think, you should ridicule him. Not his voters. His cabinet, for sure, and his appointees, but not all at once. Stick with him. Successful agitprop — I mean, look at Gerald Ford. He will always be remembered as this bumbling Chevy Chase, a head injury waiting to happen.

“Rex Tillerson” is the most evil name. It’s straight out of DC Comics.

I mean, “Reince Priebus”! And Rudy, I mean he looks like he comes out of Powerpuff Girls. He’s absolutely, slaveringly demonic.

Do you think they know they’re evil?

Giuliani does. People have been telling him since the beginning of his career. But I’m sure he knows.

So what do you make of Alessandro Borgognone bringing Sushi Nakazawa into the Trump DC hotel?

I will never eat in his restaurant. I have utter contempt for him, utter and complete contempt. Just like David Burke — I mean, I never had the highest opinion of him in the first place, but I guess he’s the last person in this life I should look to for principles. Burke went in and took over [the space Jose Andres had originally occupied], and promptly tried to poach his staff, I hear. This was after Jose reached out and said “Everyone welcome him to Washington, don’t hold it against him, just because I decided to pull out.” So Burke’s a steaming loaf of shit, as far as I’m concerned, and feel free to quote me.

It’s not helpful, that sort of thing [opening in a contentious hotel]. I’m not asking you to start putting up barricades now, but when they come and ask you, “Are you with us?” You do have an option. You can say “No thanks, guys. I don’t look good in a brown shirt. Makes me look a little, I don’t know, not great. It’s not slimming.”

So what do you think was going through their heads when they were like, “I’m gonna throw in with the bad guys”?

“I’m gonna get in good with the President and make me some money!” What did Kanye West go to Trump Tower for? Why did Al Gore go? Why did Mitt Romney go?

What would you do if he invited you?

I’m not going. I’m not going.

And I would never go to the White House Correspondents’ dinner — though I doubt there will be another. Thank god, that’s an institution I’d like to see die for years. If there’s one good thing to come out of the Trump administration, let it be that there will be no more White House Correspondents’ dinners. It reinforces all the world’s worst notions about the hideous, inside-the-beltway, all-in-it-together culture. It brings honor to no one to have Kim Kardashian or Tara Reid sitting there next to a news anchor. What is this all about? Fuck that. If I’m gonna make fun of you today, I’m not accepting your food tomorrow. I had dinner with President Obama, but I paid. We were offered Air Force One, and I said, “There’s no way. No way.”

That sounds a lot like journalism.

Yeah! It’s like, “Be my friend, be my special friend.” No, we’re not going to be your special friend. Personally, I have a very low opinion of people who behave this way.

And Trump — the man eats his steak well done! I don’t think he’s a good person. I remember the Central Park Five, and what he said. I’ve seen how he’s treated employees. I saw what he did to Atlantic City. I saw what he did to the west side of this town. It’s fuckin’ ugly. He’s going to make the whole world look like the back of Rick James’ van…”

They very same folks who are furiously playing save the damsel and acting all outraged and screaming bloody murder at the mild free speech expressed by a fellow passenger to Ivanka Trump on an airplane, are the very same folks who see absolutely nothing wrong with the brutalizing at the hands of police, of this innocent black mother who called the police for help..

Earlier this month, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and Senator Mike Lee of Utah, through his spokesperson, told Buzzfeed they plan to reintroduce an embattled bill that barely gained a House hearing in 2015. But this time around, they said, the First Amendment Defense Act (FADA) was likely to succeed due to a Republican-controlled House and the backing of President-elect Donald Trump.

FADA would prohibit the federal government from taking “discriminatory action” against any business or person that discriminates against LGBTQ people. The act distinctly aims to protect the right of all entities to refuse service to LGBTQ people based on two sets of beliefs: “(1) marriage is or should be recognized as the union of one man and one woman, or (2) sexual relations are properly reserved to such a marriage.”

Ironically, the language of the bill positions the right to discriminate against one class of Americans as a “first amendment” right, and bans the government from taking any form of action to curb such discrimination—including withholding federal funds from institutions that discriminate. FADA allows individuals and businesses to sue the federal government for interfering in their right to discriminate against LGBTQ people and would mandate the Attorney General defend the businesses.

On December 9, Sen. Lee’s spokesperson, Conn Carroll, told Buzzfeed the election of Trump had cleared a path for the passage of FADA.

“Hopefully November’s results will give us the momentum we need to get this done next year,” Carroll said. “We do plan to reintroduce FADA next Congress and we welcome Trump’s positive words about the bill.”

Found this at BJ:

sherparick1 says:
December 22, 2016 at 11:42 am
If you live in the 3rd District of Illinois, you might want to attend your Congressman Dan Lipinski’s townhall on January 7 at Oak Lawn Community high school and ask him why he is co-sponsoring this atrocity and what he has to say to his LBGT
constituents who will be reduced to second class status and get health care benefits for their family members.

I think everyone already knows how I feel about our historic First Lady…

Sometimes I am just so overwhelmed that I step back…other times I simply lose my ability to articulate just how powerfully impactful …

I feel the need to share that I’ve watched this interview over and over and over again…so much so, that I can tell even the slightest edits that were made from the first airing on CBS, to last night’s airing on OWN…

For the first time, I not only tuned into OWN, I spent 3 straight hours of the night watching… their first White House interview from 2009, the encore of FLOTUS’ 2016 interview, and the Legends ball …I then rewatched FLOTUS’ 2016 interview – again…

I cried…and cried…and cried again…

So much clear-eyed and unvarnished truth, so much unassuming and stoic greatness and grace, so much wisdom and brilliance…and such strength borne of that fortitude of being a confident, dark-skinned black woman in a world that never looked out for her or thought her deserving –of chivalry, or to be protected …and yet so sweet and open…with glimpses of vulnerability…especially evident when her husband walked in and when he held her hand….so much sincerity…such glorious depth and insight, so much honor, so much integrity, so much fearlessness…a fearlessness that wasn’t seeking permission or validation…so much generous and genuine humanity and spirit…so much unapologetic authenticity…and a self-assured and glorious and powerful presence that is at once light-hearted, laid-back and fun, but also very serious…and especially careful not to forget…or misleadingly pretend that bad is harmless…

Her eyes fully conveying so well, her journey so far, as a proud black woman in America…eyes that sum up her expressed sentiment of living with scars inflicted on one…not as a reminder that you were hurt, but as a reminder that you survived…

She survived…

No affectation…no pretense…no contrived, phony self-reinvention to counter or play to shallow nonsensical stereotypes…or faux-interpretations of what one ought to be, act or look like as dictated by the status quo…

Hollow, superficial conventions and inventions, instituted and insisted upon ironically, by those who are anything but pillars of anything good in society…people who themselves live entirely mired in deceit, corruption, immorality, bereft of decency, morals, a moral code or core…a lack of integrity, values, and humanity…but who believe and insist on calling the shots and setting and controlling societal ‘standards’ of what rates and what doesn’t…insisting that if a woman perfected her pout – and draped… no pretentiously half-wears her coat mounted on your shoulders…if she played coy, and walked around in 4″ heels, with a stick up her b*tt…and tripped over her tongue talking valley girl in a fake tone …that that was the sum total of everything that matters…that that somehow automatically earned her the top perch on the pedestal..

But our magnfificent and historic FLOTUS’ just by her very presence, her very being…showed us all a better way… and showed us how it should and ought to be…

Everything she projects just by being her authentic, brilliant, witty, fun, genuine, down to earth, morally upright and upstanding self…just so incredibly appealing…so powerfully intriguing and captivating…and just so magnificent in every sense of the word..

She is the perfect mix of brilliance and emotional intelligence…beautifully wrapped up in wisdom and common sense..

Where others are touted as having either a high IQ…or a high EQ…and lacking the other..

She is the epitome of perfectly blended equal parts high IQ and high EQ…

A Virginia winery owned by President-elect Donald Trump’s son is seeking more foreign workers, according to a new report.

The Department of Labor petitioned for the winery, called Trump Vineyard Estates, to bring in six foreign workers using the federal government’s temporary work visa program known as H-2, BuzzFeed reported on Wednesday.

Let’s remind ourselves of a few things we’ve learned about Donald Trump over the last year or so. First of all, from Tony Schwartz (the ghostwriter for The Art of the Deal), we learned that the president-elect has no attention span for anything unrelated to himself.

“Trump has been written about a thousand ways from Sunday, but this fundamental aspect of who he is doesn’t seem to be fully understood,” Schwartz told me. “It’s implicit in a lot of what people write, but it’s never explicit—or, at least, I haven’t seen it. And that is that it’s impossible to keep him focussed on any topic, other than his own self-aggrandizement, for more than a few minutes, and even then . . . ” Schwartz trailed off, shaking his head in amazement. He regards Trump’s inability to concentrate as alarming in a Presidential candidate. “If he had to be briefed on a crisis in the Situation Room, it’s impossible to imagine him paying attention over a long period of time,” he said.

That probably has a lot to do with why Paul Manafort – who was acting as his campaign manager at the time – said this in response to a question about what Trump would be looking for in a running mate:

“He needs an experienced person to do the part of the job he doesn’t want to do. He sees himself more as the chairman of the board, than even the CEO, let alone the COO.”

During the campaign we also saw how the driving force for what motivates much of Trump’s behavior is his worldview that he must either dominate or is dominated.

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Even though 3Chics Politico is written and curated by three women: Ametia, Rikyrah, and SouthernGirl2, I must nominate this as one of the most engaging blogs I've found. Devoted to politics and culture, these three shine a light on contemporary life with humor and spirit.